The biomedical, neoliberal and traditional discursive front of education: Debate in critical health education

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the theoretical debates around health education (SPS) identified in scientific articles from five countries of Anglo-Saxon America, Europe and Australia, in order to contribute to the pedagogical base of EpS and its link with public health . Methodology: A documentary study that uses scientific articles from research carried out in Australia, the United States, England, Canada and Spain as sources of information. Results: The theoretical debates developed in three axes of discussion were identified: the structural one, in which the maintenance of a traditional HE is denounced, from a biomedical perspective of health and a current neoliberal model; that of pedagogical practices, developed by a fragile and functional education to maintain the reproduction of the current social order, and that of proposals, from which alternative pedagogical perspectives are promoted around the conceptualization of health and HE. Conclusions: There is a discursive front that perpetuates a conception of health based on the biomedical model, on the hegemony of the neoliberal model and on the traditional idea of HE, within the framework of classical public health. But the critical perspectives of HE and public health are also recognized, which constitute another counter-hegemonic discursive front, which seeks to transform the unjust social order.